Poet Billy Collins talks about his new work full of small poems, built to pack an emotional punch in just a few, short lines.
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In Mexico, some enslaved people found freedom
Alice L. Baumgartner joins guest host John McCaa to discuss the Civil War and how thousands of enslaved people found freedom in Mexico.
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Who we build monuments to and why it matters
Paul M. Farber of the National Monument Audit joins us to discuss a recent study of 50,000 monuments across the U.S. and what the research shows about who we memorialize and who we leave out.
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What it’s really like to be incarcerated
Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods are co-hosts of the podcast “Ear Hustle,” and they join us to talk about what they’ve learned about life on the inside from the inmates who shared their stories.
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Ronald Reagan’s daughter on Alzheimer’s and caregiving
Patti Davis joins us to discuss the support group she founded and the struggle with prolonged grief that comes with the illness.
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On disability and discrimination
Jan Grue talks about justice for people with disabilities and why he believes, even with gains in disability rights, the world would still like to keep the differently-abled in the shadows.
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Why we find pleasure in pain
Paul Bloom joins us to discuss why we sometimes seek out pain — in everything from scary movies to marathons.
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Anxious all the time? Here’s how to free your mind
psychotherapist Nancy Colier explains how excessive thinking to the point of stress is an addiction and offers tips on how practices like mindfulness can calm an overactive mind.
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The tailor-made healthcare of the future
Daniel M. Davis is professor of immunology at the University of Manchester, and he joins us to talk about cutting-edge research that will help doctors fine-tune our health care.
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When you’re bipolar, chaos is always lurking
Naomi Jackson joins us to talk about the series of events that led to her diagnosis of bipolar disorder and the things she almost lost as she battled her way back to health.
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Want to help the planet? Stop buying so much
J. B. MacKinnon joins us to talk about the push-pull between the supposed economic harm of less shopping with the environmental impacts of buying too much.
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The limitless human imagination
Science writer Philip Ball joins us to discuss new research about imagination, and why the ability to understand the world in multi-dimensional ways is more surprising than even our ability to dream.
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